Lands Serene
by Navarth
Summary: Strange doings outside the Labyrinth walls; stranger doings within. You might even call it strange.
1. Sunset

So, this is my first ever fan fiction. I don't want to give too much of a preface, but I intend to have things slightly heavier on plot. Stories change and morph, so perhaps this one will change significantly. If it's going off the rails, I'll give a little warning (the rating might change as well).

Also, I really, really, oh so very much want reviews. I'll write extra subplots, lingering chapters were Sarah and Jareth stare into each other's eyes (actually, probably not), I'll even do an extra spell check...anything! I'll even read and review your stories, out of sheer gratitude.

-Navarth

* * *

 **Sunset**

Riding over the hill, dark red in the orange sunset, came something like a man on a very eccentric looking creature which was probably a horse. His hair (that is, the man's) was a sort of fallow gold in the fading light, his clothes gave off a faint sheen. There was something vaguely absurd about his posture: both elegant, and coupled with his mount, a sort of un-paralleled grotesquery. His horse was perhaps more of the latter. Most of the components of a horse were somewhere in evidence: a tail, four legs, two eyes, etc. but somehow the teeth were a bit too large, and the eyes a bit too small, and one of the hind legs a little bit shorter, so that the creature walked with a slight ungainly rhythm to its gait. Overall, the silhouette was not terribly attractive.

And yet, there was in the incongruity of shapes a character of rare charm; wild and a law unto itself.

As The Goblin King rode down the hill, Sarah realized with a hint of amusement that the mare was splotched all over with a sort of muddy brown and black patches. She might have sniggered a little, but still The Goblin King reposed gracefully in the saddle, supremely above any fault anyone else chose to find in his appearance (that being more their affair than his).

He did not notice her, but continued on towards the outer wall and melded into the crimson-flushed bricks.

Having arrived inside his domain, The Goblin King sent his beast away, and with a crick of his neck, arrived back in his city. He strolled up the street, for once enjoying the air. Generally, it was stale and un-appealing; if not confining, at least not refreshing as one might imagine outdoor air to be. It was as if a room had been tightly shut for years, except aired every Sunday when not a soul was there: no dust, nothing changeable, nothing human. But now there was a slight breeze, quite uncommon, really, but a pleasant change.

Once he achieved the throne room (if having a chair on a dais counted as a throne room), he paused in the doorway, surveying the usual chaos. There were perhaps two or three goblins that appeared more or less sober, or at least lucid. For the most part, though, the creatures wandered around, or made various frightful noises either from a lack of intellect or too much beer. Not at their very worst though, he thought, did they ever manage to become wholly unconscious, always on the ready to be entirely inept.

The Goblin King, without much expression on his face, made his way fastidiously towards his "throne," upon which he draped rather gracefully, as if in quiet disdain for the riot around him.

Sighing, he produced a crystal from thin air, and with a little pause, as if to solidify an idea in his mind, sent it drifting out the window.


	2. A Crystal Moon

Another short-ish chapter. Yes, Sarah will show up soon enough, but I'd like to get the atmosphere of the story going first.

Also, I fixed the repeats in the first chapter. Sorry about it: newbie here.

-Navarth

REVIEWS? Please, please please please?

I can make threats: I'll have kinky sex galore between Ludo the playboy and every fweakin' single last goblin; you'll never be able to get it out of your head. It will be seared in your brain! Hah haha hah ha (maniacal laughter).

* * *

He observed the last hint of daylight disappear from the sky, and with a suddenness that was extremely strange, or would be to anyone not used to the notion, the goblins all vaporized, leaving nothing but a little drool here and there, and the beer keg idly drip-dripping on the floor.

The Goblin King sighed, and reposing a little further into his chair, waited for the moon to rise.

Finally, the moon did rise, extraordinarily blue, and smooth as the ball he had sent through the window earlier. Indeed, if you had the eyes to peer straight at the moon, you could maybe glimpse a star or two through it: it looked rather fragile too, as if you might have to be careful touching it (not that anybody had tried that for a long while).

Swiftly, the stone walls of the room sprang to life, drawing apart and bulging forward, sometimes. The floor sunk and grew a staircase ascending to The Goblin King's seat, and tendrils of marble floor crept across the room, gradually strangling the last remnant of grimy stone. As it disappeared, there was a slight shriek, as if it resented this cavalier treatment. A small hand grasped up between the cracks, and left a grubby handprint on the shining white marble, as if to prove that the grime was not entirely routed.

Silk curtains drifted gracefully across the room, to lean casually along the walls, and bright mirrors blossomed from chinks in the fast fading stone. As the transformation was almost complete, the mirrors concaved or convexed, as the whim took them, perversely reflecting the already fantastic room. Everything was white, or silver, or gold, and just a little confusing, as if the walls weren't quite clear on their role. But the mirrors were very bright, and the stairs extremely certain of themselves, so it was alright.

Finally, The Goblin King rose, and paced to the bottom of the staircase, as if waiting for something. Somewhere in the metamorphosis he had obtained a rather odd set of velvets, with something like sparkles on the shoulders. They were perhaps absurd, if the Goblin King had not happened to be wearing them.

Dancers sprang up from the floor, mid-twirl, mid-embrace, mid…well, mid-something. Even The Goblin King wasn't always sure what: he didn't enquire too closely.

Music welled somewhere underground, and reverberated against the walls, faint, but undeniable. It was as if a voice was constantly just trying to wake you from a dream, only the dream did not end, and the voice kept on. It was such a peculiar, wistful air. There was something vaguely unwholesome as well, as if this balance between reality and something not quite was a little against the natural order of things. A bit licentious, perhaps.

The Goblin King wandered in and among the dancers, now and then dancing with a girl, but they all eventually tired of him, or him of them, and so they would circle away.

They danced all night.

At the first peep of day, The Goblin King smiled a little wistfully, and with a snap of his fingers, everyone fell to the floor, and as they hit it, turned into goblins. The white marble, as if recoiling at the new and un-aesthetic occupants sprawled across it, quickly retreated. And the mirrors all broke with a smash and disappeared into smoke. Everything was now as it had been as the sun had sunk on the previous day.


	3. The Wrong Words

I'm finally back in the land of fanfic. I got unexcited about this story, even though I'd written most of it. But now I'm re-excited, and this time I'm going to finish it. I've been doing a lot of reading, and I think the plot/characters should be mildly more sophisticated than before. At least I hope so.

Note: the plot is not 100% linear, neither is the entire story related from Sarah's perspective. I prefer a more egalitarian approach. Bear with me; if you are a little thrown, it will make sense soon enough!

Let me know what y'all think.

* * *

"Don't you recognize me?" Said Sarah, a little puzzled.

"No," said the Goblin King a little absently, but still gallant; an odd thing, from Sarah's limited experience. He wore that faintly predatory look she remembered from her last dance, but she realized with a little surprise that there was nothing personal about his unbroken gaze. It was a rather odd feeling, to be looked at so intensely with so little a warmth. Sarah felt herself shudder involuntarily.

The Goblin King raised an eyebrow, the first sign that he was actually aware of her as an individual.

"But, but, I ran your maze and saved my brother, and you promised me my dreams if I loved you and all sorts of drivel; don't you remember the _and I will be your slave_ bit?" Said Sarah, perhaps more strenuously than she intended.

"My dear girl, I have found that a little seduction usually brings up every romantic short; if that is really what I said, then I suppose that was what I was about." He said, more than a little condescendingly.

"Well, I didn't fall for it," said Sarah smugly.

"You are to be congratulated." He said rather dryly.

The Goblin King tilted his head a little, as if trying to think of something. Sarah could not think of anything adequately clever to say, so they twirled in silence for what seemed an extremely awkward eternity to Sarah. The Goblin King's mind wandered out the window for a time, though he seemed to maintain his gaze on Sarah.

"You know," he said breaking his trance, "I believe I do recognize you. You had a rather dramatic finale, if I recall right. Something about kingdoms and power, wasn't it?" He said this with a rather amused lilt to his voice, which still seemed to have no warmth in it. "You must know that most girls just say something like 'no,'"

"Oh, well, yes, that was me. I was proud of myself for saying the right words. You don't have to make fun of me."

"I'm not. I don't need to; you were quite amusing enough without me pointing it out, I promise you. But it was all rather dull and heroic in the end; I suppose that's not your fault." He said tolerantly.

"Well, I think beating your Labyrinth and knowing the right words should count for something," said Sarah, and then tentatively, "shouldn't it?"

"Oh, you loved your brother very much, didn't want him turned into a goblin, and were going to be a wonderful sister." Now Sarah was almost sure he was laughing at her to himself. She thought she heard some little tittering snickers from around her.

"Then there must be a lot of people who beat the Labyrinth, mustn't there?" Said Sarah puzzled.

"What a clever girl!" Said the Goblin King, and with a little smirk, deftly spun her away, and disappeared into the crowd. Sarah was left alone, gawking awkwardly around her. She felt a slight blush, as some of the dancers' activities started to register.


End file.
